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I worked with three colour management and RIP's for the Epson 7800, 8800, 9800 those being, Kodak Matchprint, EFI Colour Proof XF 3.1 and Onyx Production House. Between the three I would recommend the EFI solution. It provides a great flexibility between automation and manual control. The colour management is great, it's wizard based and easy to use for anyone. The rip is also fast, allows for print on the fly and bi-directional printing which increases print speed. For creating profiles EFI is also compatible with the largest selection of input devices for colour values. Kodak MPI only supports three input devices at the moment, Onyx does support more and it will support the new X-Rite iSis in the new version of the software.
On a different note, Onyx is a very good RIP if you will be working with signage. If you need SWOP certification Kodak's may be your answer, it uses a verification strip which requires you to read the proof back into the system and compare to a standard. EFI has a similar option, the Colour Verifier, but you might have to pay for the license and it's not SWOP certified. I hope this helps.

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I looked at StarProof but I don't see that you can use it with PDF or Tiff files. Also it looks like only outputs dotted proofs and it has no option for contone. It does not support new Epsons 880 series and current instruments like Isis. AFAIK dtp-70 is dead product. But I like the fact that it works on the Mac.

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Guess you are right about the PDF . That rip is mosttly dedicated to proof 1 bit files (I was using it in an Harlequin based workflow environment). I know it's got 8 bit tiff capabilities, but to what extent, I don't know.

Better train people and risk they leave - than do nothing and risk they stay.

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The last place I was at was using the ORIS.
Where I am now is using EFI color.
The proofs looked better using the ORIS, but I wasn't here to see the profiling for the EFI color.
The proofs look muddier than the press sheets to me.

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The product has excellent color control for Epson printers; supports entire family of printers (not by seats); runs on Mac, Win and Linux interchangeably within the client/server environment; scaleable by clustering RIPs; low cost of upgrades and service support; print dots or contone, post or pre-RIP; configurable GUI for ease of use; Lots of other features which may or may not be applicable to your specific needs.

Bob Hill
Mid-States Graphics

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I would highly recommend gmg. Far and away the best i've had to work with. Like any new software, it seems very difficult to work with at the start, however, after the learning curve, you will be absolutely satisfied. I have been using for the past five years or so and have never been let down.

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I know when we got our DuPont CromaPro XP, we got it because GMG wasn't available I don't think in the U.S. at that time.

Now we have to look at a proofing rip/proofer/paper combo that is going to let us be within tolerances for GRACoL2006_Coated1v2 and also ISOuncoated. We can't use DuPont CromaPro XP because it requires UV filtration, while all specifications don't use it. Because of the UV filtration, I sent my proofs off to the IPA RoundUp to get measured.

I wish we could use our current solution, but the combo we have is out of tolerance on:
IT8/7.4 (All patches) (Average Delta E ab 1.98, should be less than or equal to 1.5)
50/40/40 Neutral Gray (Delta E ab 2.40, should be less than or equal to 1.5)
UGRA/FOGRA Media Wedge (Average Delta E ab 2.02, should be less than or equal to 1.5)
Note: These results are from the IPA Proofing RoundUp.